1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring a stick with a strand of sausage or the like suspended therefrom whereby sticks each having a strand of sausage or the like suspended therefrom are transferred to a conveyor means which conveys the sticks to a heat treatment facility including a smoking truck for the purpose of heat treatment of the sausage or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
As apparatuses of this type, apparatuses disclosed in JP-A-2005-304435, JP-UM-B-6-21351, and JP-A-8-266216 are known. The apparatus of JP-A-2005-304435 has a transferring means 9 wherein a stick 4 with a strand of sausage wound therearound and suspended therefrom in the form of loops is lifted up by hooks 35 from stick receivers 25 of a stick relaying and supporting means 8 which supports the stick 4 at its both ends, and this stick 4 is transferred to a forward position in the longitudinal direction of the stick 4, and wherein the transferring means 9 at the forward position of transfer lowers and delivers the stick 4 by a lowering means to a conveying means 10 which travels in an orthogonal direction to this transferring direction.
The aforementioned transferring means 9 includes a horizontal rod 47 extending in the longitudinal direction of the stick 4 and having the hooks 35 at its both ends, and this horizontal rod 47 is supported at its longitudinally central portion by a body 51B of a rodless cylinder 51. The horizontal rod 47 is adapted to reciprocate in a direction X, i.e., the longitudinal direction of the horizontal rod 47, by the actuation of the rodless cylinder 51.
The delivery of the stick 4 from the aforementioned transferring means 9 to the conveying means 10 is effected by rotating a pair of lifting rotational arms 55 by a pneumatic rotary actuator 56 (FIGS. 5A and 5B), or by attaching the horizontal rod 47 to a body 59B of a vertical rodless cylinder 59 mounted on the body 51B and by lowering the horizontal rod 47 by the vertical rodless cylinder (FIG. 6).
JP-UM-B-6-21351 discloses a lowering means 5 which is lowered and transfers to a conveyor a hanging rod 2 (corresponding to the stick of JP-A-2005-304435) with sausage loops suspended therefrom, upon receiving the hanging rod 2 which has been sent thereto by a relaying and conveying means 3 for supporting the hanging rod 2 at its both ends and conveying it in the longitudinal direction of the hanging rod 2. The lowering means 5 has a pair of placing bases 10 for receiving the hanging rod 2 and a pair of vertical transfer members for respectively lowering the placing bases 10. The vertical transfer members are constituted by two cylinder units fixed vertically, and two air cylinders are disposed outside the passage of the hanging rod 2 so that a rod of each of the cylinder units as a member for upwardly pushing the placing base 10 does not cause a hindrance to the transfer of the hanging rod 2 which is conveyed by a conveyor 4.
JP-A-8-266216 discloses a conveying apparatus 51 for conveying an elongated rod 2 (corresponding to the stick of JP-A-2005-304435) in a conveying direction A which is the longitudinal direction of the elongated rod 2 (FIGS. 9 to 13). As shown in FIG. 12, the conveying apparatus 51 includes an endless chain 56; a driving-side sprocket wheel 61 and a driven-side sprocket wheel 62 (FIG. 9); an electric motor (not shown) for circulatingly moving the endless chain 56 along the conveying direction A; and a supporting means 54 (FIG. 9) which is attached to the endless chain 56 to horizontally support the elongated rod 2. Supporting members 67 and 68 of the supporting means 54 are respectively mounted to preceding and following support blocks 65 which are attached to the endless chain 56 (FIG. 9). The support blocks 65 move in the conveying direction A while being positioned and guided by guide rail members 69 (see FIG. 12 as well).
In JP-A-8-266216, a receiving means 250 is provided for receiving the elongated rods 2 conveyed by the above-described conveying apparatus 51 (FIGS. 15 and 16). This receiving means 250 has two endless chains 255 which are each wound around and trained between a driving sprocket wheel 253 and a driven sprocket wheel 254 and travel in the vertical direction; a pair of receiving plates 256 attached to the endless chains 255; and a driving mechanism (not shown) for rotating the pair of driving sprocket wheels 253. As for the pair of receiving plates 256, their relative positions with respect to the aforementioned supporting members 67 and 68 are predetermined owing to the traveling of the endless chains 255 so that the pair of receiving plates 256 receive at their end portions the elongated rod 2 which came slipping down from the supporting members 67 and 68 of the conveying apparatus 51. Upon receiving the elongated rod 2, the receiving plates 256 transfer the elongated rod 2 to a pair of endless chains 261 of another conveying apparatus 251 as the endless chains 255 travel.
However, in JP-A-2005-304435, the horizontal rod 47 is mounted on the body 51B of a rodless cylinder 51, so that the total weight of the long stick 4 with a strand of sausage 2 suspended therefrom and the long horizontal rod 47 is adapted to be applied to the short body 51B. Therefore, the sliding resistance applied to the body 51B which reciprocatingly moves horizontally is likely to vary with the movement of the horizontal rod 47, and in the light of characteristics of the pneumatic rodless cylinder in which variations are likely to occur in the moving speed based on load variations, with the apparatus of JP-A-2005-304435, the moving speed of the rodless cylinder must be set slow to prevent the deviation of the stick 4 on the hooks 35 due to the swaying of the sausage 2 which is ascribable to the variation of the moving speed of the horizontal rod 47. As a result, the productivity of the apparatus declines.
Further, in the case of the construction in which the rodless cylinder 59 which is operated in the vertical direction is mounted on the body 51B, the weight of the rodless cylinder 59 is applied to the body 51B, and the load increases by that portion. Therefore, the moving speed of the rodless cylinder which is reciprocatingly moved must be set even slower, with the result that the productivity declines further.
Furthermore, in the case where the lowering means uses the lifting rotational arms 55, the strand of sausage 2 suspended from the stick 4 supported by the lifting rotational arms 55 is lowered while being moved in an opposite direction to a conveying direction Y of the conveying means 10, so that an extra vacant space over a pair of endless chains 62 of the aforementioned conveying means 10 for placing the stick 4 thereon is required by the portion of the movement in the aforementioned opposite direction. In consequence, not only does the stick loading efficiency of the conveying means 10 aggravate, but opportunities of delivery of sticks to the conveying means decrease, so that the productivity of the apparatus declines.
In JP-UM-B-6-21351, the above-described drawback due to the rotation of the lowering means as in JP-A-2005-304435 does not occur, but since the two cylinder units (lowering means 5) fixed vertically have their positions fixed below the conveyor 4, there is a possibility that the hanging rod 2 and the strand of sausage which are transferred from the upstream side on that conveyor 4 may come into contact with the cylinders. Further, there is another possibility that the lowering movement of the two cylinders may fall out of synchronization, possibly rendering instable the delivery of the hanging rod 2 to the conveyor 4.
With the apparatus disclosed in JP-A-8-266216, the horizontal transfer and vertical transfer of the stick with the strand of sausage suspended therefrom are effected by electric motors and chains. However, although the apparatus of this JP-A-8-266216 does not have the above-described drawback ascribable to being a pneumatic cylinder, in the horizontal transfer of the stick, the line of movement of the endless chain 56 and the extending direction of a fitting groove 84 of the guide rail member 69 in which the supporting member is fitted and slides therein are parallel, but are offset from each other with an interval therebetween in the horizontal direction (FIG. 13). Therefore, the sliding resistance which occurs during the transfer is large, and smooth transfer is difficult, so that this apparatus is unsuitable for high-speed transfer. In addition, since the preceding support block 65 and the following support block 65 are separately attached to different chain links of the endless chain 56, the above-described drawback is promoted. In this respect as well, this apparatus is unsuitable for high-speed transfer.
In the receiving means 250 for vertical transfer in JP-A-8-266216 (FIGS. 15 and 16), the receiving means 250 is at positions opposing a frame 60 of the conveying apparatus 51 in a perpendicular direction (direction of arrow B) to the aforementioned conveying direction A. The aforementioned positions where the receiving means 250 is disposed are both side positions where the supporting members 67 and 68 sandwich the pair of receiving plates 256 in the conveying direction A of the conveying apparatus 51. Therefore, the size of the apparatus in the perpendicular direction (direction of arrow B) to the aforementioned conveying direction A becomes large. Furthermore, since the pair of receiving plates 256 is long (length for supporting three sticks), this apparatus is not suitable for high-speed lowering.